Tried and tested: 5 vegan treats for Veganuary

Happy Veganuary! Worst name ever for something that has such a great idea behind it. Apparently 120,000 people signed up this year, which is their best year ever.

One of the things that I was very nervous about when I started following a mostly plant-based diet was what sweet things I would be able to find that didn’t involve eggs or butter or honey. Surely all biscuits involved butter and milk and eggs?

And what could I do about baking? I love to bake with my son (and then eat most of the resulting treats by myself in the cupboard), but I was nervous that the substitutions I was reading about just wouldn’t taste very good, or wouldn’t work very well.

Could delicious cakes and cookies and biscuits actually be made without eggs or butter? Would they taste anything like their egg and butter filled rivals?

Luckily, the answer to that is yes. Yes, yes, yes.

I started following Accidentally Vegan on Instagram, who share lots of vegan shop bought treats. I discovered that my favourite biscuits (dark chocolate digestives) are vegan in both Tesco and Aldi. And that most dark chocolate bars are vegan (although – always check the label on them if you want to be sure). And I’ve found five pretty much foolproof recipes that taste absolutely incredible.

My 5 favourite vegan treats

1 – Super rich chocolate cake

My cousin made this Nigella Lawson vegan chocolate cake when we went to hers for a family gathering over Christmas, and it was so delicious I decided to make it for Theo’s birthday as well. It’s super chocolatey and moist and light. The icing seems to get super thick while it’s waiting for you to finish the cake, but I just stirred in some more water and it was alright.

2 – Lemon drizzle cake

This lemon cake was the first ever bit of vegan baking I did and it was surprisingly easy. It gave me more confidence that actually, baking without eggs or butter would be okay, so if you’re starting off, this might be a good one to start with. Although, to be fair, the biscuit recipes are all super easy, too. I guess the main thing is: Start with something that doesn’t involve aquafaba (chickpea water, which I still haven’t tried, despite rave reviews!) and you’ll probably be okay.

3 – Lemon chia cookies

We have a regular grocery delivery, and the basket autopopulates every week. We tend to be very good at removing unwanted things before we get a giant shop of things we don’t need, but for some reason, we never spot the lemons in there. So we have an abundance of lemons. And as you know, when life gives you lemons, you make vegan lemon chia cookies. That’s the saying, right?

4 – Sugar biscuits

My favourite ever biscuit are simple, homemade sugar biscuits. I only really make them at Christmas (although this year I definitely want to make them more often), and I was a bit nervous that the vegan variety wouldn’t taste as good. I needn’t have stressed. These are perfect.

5 – Peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies

If you’re looking for savoury sweet, moreish, delicious peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies, look no further. This recipe is AMAZING. I could eat these all day every day.